The next day at school, we met Alice at the gate. She had been overly excited to tell me all about Justin, the guy from the party who had already texted her at least twenty times the day before. She couldn't get over how 'exciting' it was getting to know somebody new.

"Honestly, Ri, he's really the sweetest guy..." we were sitting in the lunch cafeteria. A fork in my hand as I watched Alice talk about Justin for the fortieth time today.

Seriously, I had counted.

When low and behold, the guy himself walked over, wrapped his left arm around her neck from behind and gave her multiple kisses on her cheeks. She was smiling ear to ear as she leaned back into his chest, giving him more access to her face.

He was a broad guy with a buzzcut hairstyle. He used his right arm to drape his varsity jacket over his shoulder. All around you could see girls staring at him; longing looks. "I hope you weren't talking about me too much." He said sitting down sideways on the cafeteria bench, with his back practically facing me. He wasn't bothered who I was.

Alice looked smitten. Her whole face lit up at the sight of this guy. This obnoxious, arrogant lad who, no doubt, would play Alice's heart.

He swept a hefty arm around her waist and pulled her up so she was standing. "Hey, I'll see you later, Ri." Alice said as he whisked her away. I could see them moving to the 'popular' table.

A hand clapped on my shoulder. I turned to look over at it and was greeted by someone with the same eyes as me.

"Where are they off to?" Sammy said as he sat down next to me. I just shrugged, looking back down to my food in front of me. I was used to being ditched, I just hoped it wasn't a regular thing.

After school, Sammy walked with me to the tree. We both, much to the awkwardness of Sammy, waved and said hello to Daniel as we sat. The flowers left there had wilted over the last couple of days and had began to die. It gave the bench a saddened atmosphere that I didn't like.

I'd sat down under the tree, feeling my back mould to the new familiar feeling of the bark of the tree trunk. I loved the feeling it gave me; the sudden rush of warmth and safety. Weirdly, I felt...protected I pulled out my book, removed my bookmark and began to read.

Sammy stood, he had earphones in his ears. He was doing a mini workout, doing press-ups and sprinting on the spot. Coach had him doing extra workouts, in preparation for the next big game. The whole team were preparing like crazy, apparently it was a big game for the school, and evidently Coach.

I looked up at Sammy as he came walking over to me. Pulling an earphone out of his ear, he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed over to something behind me. Turning around I saw Lucas. He was jogging over to me. He was smiling and waving. I could see him shouting over, but he was too far away for me to see what he was saying. I quickly scrambled to my feet and tried to make myself look half presentable.

I spun back around to Sammy. He looked over at me and raised an eyebrow, a small smirk evident on his face. "Who's that?" he signed. I quickly swatted his hands down. I gave him a warning look, trying, telepathically, to tell him not to sign.

By the time I had turned back around Lucas had reached us. He was wearing a tank top that showed off his muscles, and I tried my hardest not to stare. His hair was crumpled and his body was covered in sweat. He had earphones hanging from his ears.

"Sorry, I was on a run and I thought I'd say hi." He said, looking between me and Sammy; trying to figure out what was happening. "Hi. I'm Lucas." He said holding out his hand for Sammy to shake.

"I'm Sam. Riley's brother." Sammy said shaking Lucas's hand. Sammy gave me a quick look over his shoulder. With a cheeky smile he quickly signed one word whilst trying to be subtle. "Cute."

I gave him a death late whilst trying to smile, trying so hard to make Sammy stop. Hopefully Lucas didn't pick up on the awkwardness.

"I'm just going to head over there for a second. Just to do... something." Sammy said grabbing my bag off my shoulder, taking the book from my hand and walking away from us both. As he walked away, he turned back to look at me. He signed 'He's just too cute!' before quickly waving at Lucas when he was almost caught.

If looks could kill, Sammy would be ten feet under by now.

Lucas stood in front of me, smiling. His eyes searched my face for some form of reaction.

We had talked over text since that first day, just general conversation; 'how are you?' and 'how's your day been?' that type of thing. But how do I approach the in-person chat? What do I do? its much easier to keep your deafness a secret when you don't have to physically listen and talk to someone.

"Hey." He said looking me in the eye. I have a small wave. He laughed; the amusement danced in his eyes. His left hand went to scratch the back of his neck as he awkwardly looked anywhere and everywhere but at me. His eyes fell to the floor as if he was suddenly very interested in his shoes.

His mouth moved, but I couldn't make out what he said. Not lifting his head, his eyes peered up, begging for a response. The confusion on my face was enough for him to realise that I hadn't heard or understood what he said.

"Please don't make me say it again." He pleaded, a small smile growing on his face.

I shrugged and kept the same confused reaction.

"Do you want to have dinner with me?"

I don't think I breathed again or another ten seconds after that. My face was frozen somewhere between confusion and shock. My eyebrows knitted together and my mouth gaping open.

Lucas misunderstood my shock and tried, almost immediately, to cover up what he had said.

"I mean, it's fine if you don't want to. I get it, like we've only just met each other. Sorry, I shouldn't have asked..." his hair had streaks in it where he was running his fingers through it so much. The itch on the back of his neck seemed to be getting worse and it was as if he had never seen his shoes before.

I managed to snap myself back into reality somewhere between him saying "I understand if you don't want to" and "I can't believe I even asked that."

I grabbed his hand, silencing him in the process. He looked down at my hand and up into my eyes.

I laughed and gave a little nod.

"I know I can't believe I said it either." He said misreading what I meant.

I squeezed his hand making him look at me again. I slowly nodded my head, praying he would understand.

"Wait, are you saying you'll go with me?"

I nodded. I couldn't help the smile that was spread across my face. A huge grin broke out on Lucas' face, his eyes coming alive again.

"Okay. Great. I'll text you the details." He said before backing away. He tripped over a tree root but stopped himself from falling. I laughed watching as he tried to recompose himself. He plugged his earphone back into his ear, laughed and gave me a small wave before running off.

I watched as he jogged away.

A pit suddenly grew in my stomach. Oh, god, what do you talk about on a first date when you're deaf but you don't want him to know?

Sammy walked back over to me, swinging my bag like a lasso. He had a full smirk on his face as he looked at me and wriggles his eyebrows. When he reached me, I grabbed my bag from him and checked nothing had fallen out. Not before Sammy had put an arm around my shoulder and was now leading me away from the tree. His stupid smile still wide on his face.

"Stop it." I signed, still looking through my bag until I finally decided that nothing important had fallen out of my bag.

"I'm not doing anything." Sammy signed back, raising both hands in the air in a mock surrender. I rolled my eyes at him and walked a bit quicker, leaving him to trail behind me slightly.

The whole walk home Sammy wouldn't stop giving me expectant looks. Every time we made eye contact Sammy would wiggle his eyebrows, as if he was waiting for me to tell home every bit of juicy gossip I had. The only problem was that I didn't have an juicy gossip.

"So where did you meet him?" Sammy signed, looking at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

"In the park. Why are you looking at me like that? It's just a dinner." I signed, trying to dismiss the weird and suggestive looks that he was giving me.

"It's just the first romantic dinner you've had since..." he didn't need to finish the sentence.

Jamie. Since Jamie.

"It's not a big deal." I signed brushing over the new awkwardness that was creeping around us like a bad smell. Neither of us wanted to talk more about Jamie. There was nothing more to say.

We walked for a bit in silence. Sammy not focused on the path and occasionally looking over at me as if he was checking to see if I was okay.

Lucas had text me the details we were going for dinner the next evening. Some place called 'Castinarros' which, according to the internet, had four stars.

I had searched the restaurant as soon as he told me. The pictures looked fancy, everyone displayed in them were smiling. There were pictures of waiters pouring big glasses of champagne and pictures of the velvet covered menus.

There was another picture of a man and woman sitting opposite each other at a small, two-person table. It was taken from the side; their faces in silhouette. There was a small candle burning in between them and a small flower next to the woman's hand. They were sat in front of a floor length window. Through the window the stars shone, the reflection bounced off of the man's smart glasses and made it look like his eyes were twinkling just by looking at the woman opposite him.

Something about it seemed so pure, so innocent. I couldn't help but remember my last romantic dinner.

"You know I will always protect you. You know that right?" He said looking across from me. He grabbed my hand, his fingers were rough from plucking the strings of his guitar he always carried on his back.

"I love you." He signed. He had been perfecting that sign for so long now. He had been practicing ways to tell me in his bathroom mirror when he thought I wasn't looking.

Is love pain? Or did it just come included? Like some form of a buy one get one free deal that nobody ever wanted.

"The whole school knows that I'm deaf. People from every one of my classes learnt the word 'freak' in sign language. People have been calling me a freak for a week." I signed. His confusion showed on his face. I know he wouldn't have a clue what I was saying.

"Elena's in love with you. She wanted me out the picture." His face fell when he saw the name sign for Elena.

"And you helped her. By sleeping with her."

Sammy tapped on the top of the laptop; the picture of the man and woman at Castinarro's still displayed on the screen.

"Dinner's done. You okay?" he signed when I looked up at him

"Yeah." I signed. "I'm alright."